Rating the last 5 Australian coaches

In cricket, the role of a coach is an important one. Unlike other team sports such as football and hockey, where the coach or manager has the utmost authority in almost all matters, cricket is a game where the captain dictates terms.

The coach’s role is not necessarily coaching the players and improving the technical part of their game (both of which are important but not compulsory), but more of guiding the players, giving them optimal space and a free mentality to go out and perform.

One of the main objectives of a coach is to bring the best out of a player. And Australia is a team which always had very good coaches. Thus, let’s look at the last 5 Australian coaches and rate them.

#5 Geoff Marsh (1996-1999) – 7.5/10

Geoff Marsh was an important part of the Australian team that was under resurrection under Allan Border. He was a gutsy batsman and one of the most difficult to bowl to as he simply refused to get out. He played 50 Tests and 117 ODIs for Australia in a 7-year career retiring in 1992.

Geoff Marsh took over from Bob Simpson in July 1996 – after Australia lost the final of the Wills World Cup in 1996. Australia were slowly turning into the best side of the world. In 1996, they were probably the best Test team going around but the ODI team hadn’t built on the 1987 World Cup success and were pretty inconsistent.

But Marsh’s arrival as head coach changed things. Australia became slowly started becoming world-beaters. Under the Western Australian, Australia won 18 out of the 35 Tests they played. They lost only 10 of those Tests and of those, 7 losses came against India and West Indies (3 against India, 4 against the Windies).

He transformed the one-day team into a consistent team as well. Under him, Australia won 50 ODIs out of 85. He won the World Cup in 1999 as coach after winning it as a player in 1987.

Also, Australia never lost an Ashes series under him. There were a couple of setbacks for the Aussies under Marsh. They could not win a series in India and they performed inconsistently in multi-team ODI tournaments.

Before the World Cup in 1999, Australia took part in 8 multi-team tournaments and won only 3 of them. Thus, he gets 7.5.